Technology: The Blade Pro

Razer announced 2 new versions of the Razer Blade, Razer's gaming laptop line.

This is the third version of the Blade to come out and with each version they continually impress techies and industry journalists by just how much power they cram into the Blade's tiny form factor. This edition of the blade comes equipped with Intel's Haswell chipset, a NVIDIA GTX 765M (with 2gigs DDR5 VRAM), and 8gigs of DDR3 RAM. Because of the compact size, all storage is handled through a SSD. It also comes equipped with Razer's Switchblade UI. All of this in something Razer claims is "Thinner than a dime."

The Razer Blade Pro starts at approximately $2,500 and will keep Razer's 17" 1920x1080 screen. The Razer Blade will start at approximately $1,800  have a 14" 1600x900 screen.

Ever since the first version of the Blade, people have been skeptical because of the price. While this is understandable, since the first version of the Blade only came with an Intel Core i5 and Nvidia GT550M (not even a GTX card) and was still priced at around $3,000. Razer promised that they would work to make the prices more competitive with future versions of the Blade, but the only way to do that was to see if there was even a market for this kind of "high innovation" device.

Turns out there was. According to Razer, the first generation of the Blade sold out in the first 30 minutes of going on sale.

Now, here we are, three generations into the Blade product line and I think Razer is making due on their word. We are finally starting to see competitive pricing on this device and the performance specs have continued to improve. They have also opened up the Switchblade UI, so the community can now develop and share their own apps. Personally, I am happy to see other, non gaming, programs get support for this interface, like Adobe CS.

The obvious argument against the Blade is the price for the performance. Obviously you can build a top of the line PC for the same amount of money. Well, if you are going to build your own desktop, then this laptop is not for you. You are not the market. Those looking for a gaming laptop argue that you can also find other laptops that have slightly better specs for the same price as the Blade. However, Razer makes a very compelling argument, those laptops tend to be bulky and heavy monsters that also don't have Razer's Switchblade UI built-in to them.

Ultimately, it's your choice, do you want the portability of the Blade, or do you want the bulky powerhouse of the other machines? However, this argument is rapidly becoming obsolete as the newer versions are becoming more competitively priced. So then the next questions are: Is the Blade worth it? Does it have enough stuff to make you want to buy it? Why would you buy this machine as opposed to an Asus RoG or something from another well-known brand?

So, what are your thoughts on the new Razer Blade? Does it have the potential to be a desktop replacement for you? Has Razer finally succeeded in making a competitively priced machine, or do we need to wait a few more generations? Does it look like a machine you would be interested in? Comment your thoughts below!

For the full spec list, check out the product info page here! 

You can check out the promotional video for the new Blade here!